1996
1995 1996 1997 Events * Arson attack by rightwing extremists on abortion providers in Idaho (May and July), Washignton state (July), Oklahoma (September) and Missouri (November). * Qatari government of Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani establishes Al-Jazeera in Doha. * The English Patient is released, 9 Oscars. * Nevada adopts term limits for its state legislature. * Theocratic nightmare in Iran. Iranian Baha'i Musa Talibi is executed for apostasy. * Unabomber arrested. * China's population is 1,223.89 million. * The author of Primary Colours is discovered to be Joe Klien of Newsweek. Remember when people were shocked by the silly little lies of the Clinton administration? The same people refused for years to see the big lies of the second Bush administration. * Dave Dellinger publishes memoir From Yale to Jail: The Life of a Moral Dissenter. * Disney absorbs ABC. * Antarctica Environmental Protection Act becomes law. * France finally stops nuclear testing in the Pacific. * Declaration of Oportunity by Province of Alberta and Canadian National Government Timeline January * January 8: New York Times columnist William Safire describes Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar" in a column entitled "Blizzard of Lies" that evinces a failure to check facts. * January 8: François Mitterrand dies. * January 11: Hooded, anonymous Peruvian judge sentences American Lori Berenson to life imprisonment with possibility of parole as a hooded secret policeman holds a gun to her head. * Januray 17: Phil Schneider is found murdered. * January 23: President Big Bill Clinton delivers brilliant State of the Union Address. * January 25: Peter May shoots 6 people and then himself in Hillcrest, Queensland. February * February 6: Louisiana Caucuses. Pat Buchanan shocks Republicans by winnign 13 of its 21 convention delegates. * February 12: Darwin Day * February 20: New Hamhshire Primary. * February 27: Arizona Primary. March * March 2: South Carolina Primary. * March 5: Junior Tuesday Primary Elections in Colorado, Connecticutt, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington to select 208 convention delegates. Bob Dole collects 185 delegates, Pat Buchanan collects 14 delegates and "average guy" Malcolm Forbes collects 9 delegates. * March 7: New York Primary. * March 12: Super Tuesday Primary Elections. President Big Bill Clinton collects enough delegates for re-nomination as Democratic Party Presidential Nominee. Bob Dole sweeps Republican primary elections in the "Big Ten" Tuesday voting. * March 13: Massacre of school children by gun enthusiast in Dunblane, Scotland leaves 16 children and their teacher dead. * March 19: Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin Primary Elections: The 73 year old Dole says he is "on his last mission." (Viagra will later tell him differently.) Ironically, the front-loading of the primary season is recognized by all in 1996. * March 26: California Primary. The West Coast continues to vote later than everyone else. April * April 5: Mark Chahal shoots nine people at a pre-wedding party in Vernon, British Columbia. * April 28: Port Arthur Massacre in Australia leaves 35 dead. May * May 20: In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court overturns Colorado's discriminatory Amendment 2 by a 6-3 majority. This is the first major court victory for gay rights advocates in American history. June * June 17: Thomas Kuhn dies. * June 25: Khobar Towers U.S. military barracks in eastern Saudia Arabia destroted by truck bomb, killing 19 and wounding 260. * June 29: Abu Selim Massacre in Tripoli, Libya: mass execution of 1,250 prisoners at the Abu Selim Prison in response to demands for better treatment. July * July: Romanian nuclear reactor goes on line: Cernavoda-1, a pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) rated at 706 Mwe. * July 5: Dolly the sheep is born the first cloned mammal. She dies in 2003. * July 15: Slobodan Milosevic is elected President of rump state of Yugoslavia (Serbia plus Montenegro plus Kosovo) by its parliament after Montenegro prevents him from being elected by popular vote. * July 19: 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, is opened by U.S. president Bill Clinton. No money is lost making this Olympic Games happen. * July 27: The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111. * July 29: Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro visits Yasukuni Shrine. August * August 12-15: Republican Convention in San Diego. Pep Rally with a dark side. Conservative ideologues dominate the Platform Committee and remove moderate figures from the speakers' roster. Bye bye Pete Wilson. TX Gov. George W. Bush speaks about a "common sense" Congress on Nomination Night, NY Gov. George pataki nominates Jack Kemp as V.P. and Sen. John McCain nominates Bob Dole as Pres. * August 26-29: Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 1990 delegates. Nomination speaches for President Big Bill Clinton by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. * August 11 and August 17: Reform Party Convention(s). September * September 12: Supported by the Pakistani government the Taliban capture Herat. * September 25: Son of the former dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Nicu Ceauşescu, dies from cirrhosis of the liver in a Vienna hospital. * September 27: The Afghan government in Kabul falls to the Taliban militia. They publicly castrate and kill Afghan President Najibullah. * September 27: Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto calls for new elections in the Japanse lower house of parliament. October * October 1: For the first time since 1991, the Federal Hourly Minimum Wage is raised, this time from $4.25 to $4.75 an hour. Real wages have ben declining against nominal wages since 1984. * October 8-9: Electioneering for the lower house of the Japanese parliament. * October 10: City of Situbondo in East Java explodes in rioting after a Muslim is sentenced to 5 years for blasphemy. 20 churches are burned. * October 20: First elections for the lower house of Japanese parliament after the 1994 Public office Election Law. November * November 5: Bill Clinton and Al Gore win a second term, easily defeating the Republican ticket of Bob Dole and Jack Kemp. * November 5: Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is dismissed by Pakistani President Farooq Leghari. * November 30: Chernobyl Unit # 1 permanently shut down. Of the four original reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, only Unit # 3 remains on line. December * December 12: Saddam Hussein's son, Uday Hussein, seriously injured in an assassination attempt. * December 20: Carl Sagan dies. * December 29: Guatemalan government and Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending 36 year old civil war.